Drew McIntyre has given some insight into his time with the WWE and resurgence in the company.

The former NXT Champion recently appeared on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia to talk about various topics including his reaction to his release by the WWE in 2014 where he noted that he was shocked at first as he was doing the 3MB gimmick with Jinder Mahal and Heath Slater where they were on literally every show so it was very unexpected.

He would continue by stating that although he saw the news on social media, it never crossed his mind that a missed call from WWE might have been to tell him the news but rather assumed to tell him to be on the road a week earlier.

“When I got it I was like, “Oh, okay. I’ll be seeing you very soon.” And I sat and I thought about it. My girlfriend at the time who is now my wife and I had just moved into the apartment that I got the call 3 days prior. It was our first place together, so I was thinking, “How am I going to tell her? How am I going to tell my Dad?” He’s always been my number one fan.”

He continued by stating that he worried about the next step and then eventually told himself that this is the opportunity he’s been waiting for and that it had been years since he was in a serious role.

He noted that it was the right time to be away from the company for a while and to have learned so much. He believed in himself and that he could really do something and the wrestling scene outside of WWE was really picking up. This is when he got excited.

McIntyre also touched on his decision to go back to NXT when he returned to the company instead of going back to the main roster right away.

“That was what I wanted. I told my wife in the beginning when NXT really started catching fire,”You know what babe, ideal when I go back there first, if I do my thing here and I get a reputation in the independent scene, then I believe I can get an angle to NXT because it’s such a passionate fan base. I think that would be the place for me to go to really show what I can do. And then when the time is right, because the transition is so much smoother from NXT to RAW and Smackdown, because it moves so fast. RAW and Smackdown, there’s so many hours of unique TV every single week all year round.”

McIntyre added that is the way he saw it and even told Chris Jericho about it during a podcast appearance as he gave credit to Jericho for helping him early in his career and Jericho telling him when he was released that he’d be back in WWE.